Week 1: Meeting Professors, Classes, and College

Diego L -

Hello and welcome to my very first senior project blog. My name is Diego Lozano and I have been interested in computer science since 9th grade. I choose this project to allow me to learn as much as possible in a 3 month frame. The goal of the project is to compare different study mediums/methods for computer science and to find the most effective. This week has been super great for delving into my project. I started off Monday reorganizing some of my classes I will be studying. I am down to Object Oriented Programming I, Programming I in C, Data Structures & Algorithms. I have in person classes for both Data Structures & Algorithms and Object Oriented Programming on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Plus, I have a class once a week called Engineering Design Workshop II, which is a little bit daunting with college juniors and seniors. However the people in all the classes are friendly and I have started to make connections. 

This week has been a lot of planning and setting up for the senior project, things like getting a parking permit for St. Mary’s and taking my pre-project exams in my classes. I am mostly spending time with Dr. Aktunc and his graduate student TA. Both of which are phenomenal and I enjoy talking to. On Friday I took my object oriented programming pre-project exam in order to gauge my growth. After the exam, Ben spent around an hour covering all my answers and deeply explaining which are right and why. Overall I feel like I have been getting what I wanted out of this project so far and am learning so much for computer science. I also think it is great for preparing me for college. With this project, I’ve gotten back into the habit of test-taking, studying, and focusing in classes in the same intensity as my junior year. It also is giving me an introduction to college life because I get to be on a college campus, with college kids, and college classes. After spring break, my second week will be the start of intense studying for all my classes using my different learning methods. I am very excited for my project and here are some images of what this week has looked like for me. Most of them are in St.Mary’s very new building, Blank Sheppard Innovation Center where I have most my classes and do most my work.

data structures and algorithms class with Dr.Luo
data structures and algorithms class with Dr.Luo
first floor of Innovation Center
first floor of Innovation Center
working in DSA class
working in DSA class
second floor of innovation center
second floor of innovation center
Blank Sheppard Innovation Center
Blank Sheppard Innovation Center

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Comments:

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    henry_b
    I find your project to be incredibly helpful to students and look forward to seeing how it comes along these next few weeks. I'm just wondering how you are going to keep things fair when you're comparing study methods across different classes. Some classes are probably naturally harder than others, right? And maybe you already know some of the stuff in one class better than another. How are you going to make sure that doesn't mess with your results? I'd love to hear how you plan to eliminate the difficulty gap, also I love the pictures of the campus!
    March 19, 2025 at 11:07 am - Reply
    ayesha_k
    Diego, your project sounds really exciting. It’s great that you’re not only learning more about computer science but also getting a feel for college life. The way you’re testing different study methods is really interesting, and I’m curious to see what you find. I also really enjoyed seeing pictures of the campus. How did you feel about your pre-project exam? Were there any areas that stood out as particularly challenging? Looking forward to seeing how your studying methods work out in the next few weeks!
    March 20, 2025 at 12:11 pm - Reply
    diego_l
    Hi Henry! That is a totally valid concern which is why I plan on collecting average test scores for current and previous classes to gauge the difficulty. With this data I can say that the class with an average final exam of 70 is much harder than the one with 95. I also plan to implement this mathematically into my score comparison.
    March 20, 2025 at 8:33 pm - Reply
    sundhil_m
    Hi Diego! I really enjoyed the pictures! Comparing different study methods for computer science seems like a valuable and insightful experiment, especially since effective learning strategies can significantly impact understanding and retention. It’s also great that you’re gaining firsthand experience with college-level courses and campus life—an excellent way to prepare for the future. I was curious about your thoughts on your object-oriented programming pre-project exam. Were there any concepts you found particularly challenging or interesting? Looking forward to reading your Week 2 blog!
    March 20, 2025 at 9:11 pm - Reply
    diego_l
    Hi Ayesha, yes my DSA exam was very difficult. I was stuck on only one part of the program code I was supposed to write. I was even allowed to use the internet and other resources but couldn't find good documentation on how to use a function. I am confident I will be able to overcome it by the end of the project. Thank you for question!
    March 21, 2025 at 10:12 pm - Reply
    diego_l
    Great question Sundhil! My OOP pre-project exam was my best because I have the most experience in it. One question I found interesting because I didn't know the answer and got it correct through logic. It asked if an if statement kept running after receiving a true boolean in an OR gate. I answered no because I believed it Java would be optimized enough to reduce any unnecessary runtime like that. The graduate student I work with was surprised I got it right and congratulated me. I hope that answered your question!
    March 21, 2025 at 10:22 pm - Reply

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